The final hand

I am enough of a geek that I took a lot of notes on some of the hands I played in the $1500 NLH'em toruney on Tuesday and I will be posting info on them later. I am both pleased with how I did and so damn frustrated at several horrible bad-luck hands including the one that busted me for the night. I got good cards much of the day, which is lucky, but I got very unlucky in how many of the good card hands ended up in the end. With a little more luck in that regard, I would be among the tournament chip leaders right now.

I ended up going out in about 500th place. There were 2300+ players in the tournament so I fared pretty well. The top 200 make the money. Here is the story of the final hand I played.

I had about 7000 in chips (the average in the room was around 8000) and we were quite close to the dinner break. I was fairly resolved to just make the dinner break and assess my position at that time. But, I caught pocket Jacks in the small blind. We were playing at the 200-400 blind level with a $50 ante, which meant there was $1100 in chips in the pot before a single player had decided whether he liked his hand. Anyway, I've got my jacks and three guys have already called the $400 blind. I called it too as my pot odds were quite strong and so long as no A, K, or Q come on the flop, I figure I am in very good shape. I thought about a raise but I did not want to get in too deep with Jacks as they are really just a high-middle pair. Plus, the pot was big enough so that it would take a monster raise to get people out and I am not gonna drive out the scary hands to me (A+face) anyway. I felt good about no one having pocket Qs, Ks, or Aces based on the betting so far.

The flop is a dream - 10 9 4 rainbow - and I checked to see if I could trap someone and get even more value off my hand. One guy who has around $10k chips bets $1500 and the other players fold. I move all in on him. By my figuring, he is either making a move (the pot is around $4000 at this point) or has a mid-A and has hit the 10 9 or 4 to go with his ace. I don't really want him to call as he at least has an overcard and the pot is plenty big enough for me to just win it and be happy. He takes his time before deciding to call. He has A-10 for top pair with top kicker. It is a good call but I am a big favorite (approx. 80% chance I win).

Of course, the damn turn brings another ten giving him a set. I had less than a 5% chance of getting a jack on the river and it did not happen. I busted and am done.

The pot had something like 16 or 17,000 chips in it. For perspective, at that point that many chips would put you in the top 10 in chips in the entire room. Wow!!!

I was crushed. So depressing. I got my cards in at the right time. I was a huge favorite. I did everything right (I was even afraid of a call, so I was not being greedy)... and yet I lost.

Arrrggghhhh!!!!!

More on the other hands later...

Wow, what a first day!!

Well, my first day of play at the Series is over. It was a fabulous day full of wild swings and amazing hands. The table I was at saw at least a dozen hands that were decided on the river with a very unlikely final card swinging things from one player to another.

I'll get to how I did later (I am quite pleased) but wanted to first mention some of the cool guys I met today. I chatted a bit with Mark Seif, a bracelet winner who is on TV all the time. I also had a long conversation with Hevad "Rain" Khan. He's the guy who finished 6th at the Main Event last year and made a big name for himself with his huge celebratory antics after winning pots.



He's a great guy, very open and funny. He was sitting at the table next to mine much of the afternoon and we talked a few times about our chipstacks and how we were each doing. They have a new rule against excessive celbration at the Series this year and I asked him how he felt about it. he laughed and said, "They made that rule just for me. I made the Final Table and re-wrote the rule book last year -- not bad, huh?"





"Rain" is now one of my favorite players.



Sitting in the seat right next to me at my table most of the day was the attractive, younger, Asian woman. The liveupdate reporters, the guys who porovide running commentary on the Series online, kept on chatting with her and noting her hands (she whupped me for a big pot at one point -- more on that later). I asked her if she was someone I should know and she said, "No, I'm not famous but I play a lot so they know me." She was being modest. Turns out she is Anna Wroblewski, who writes a column for Bluff Magazine and is an internationally ranked player. She has already cashed in 3 events at the series this year and has career tournament earnings of close to a million dollars. She was an excellent player and it was fun to watch her play sitting right next to her. We chatted a fair amount during the play.

Well, gotta run now. I must get food!!! I am starving. I'll have a full rundown of a bunch of the interesting hands I played at little later.

Oh, and I'll also let you know how I did today ;)

I'm here!

I arrived in Vegas after an uneventful flight from Atlanta. I checked in at Harrah's and promptly went over to the Rio to register for my World Series events. I was too damn excited, jittery even, and was glad I had a day to calm down before sitting down to play in my first event.

The walk to where the WSOP is held is really long. It is in the Rio convention center, not anywhere close to the casino part of the hotel. I thought I was getting lost at times. Still, when you get there it is clear that you have arrived at the right place. There are tons of people around and room after room filled with poker tables. It is sorta unreal.

I went into the Amazon room, which is where the main portion of the tournaments are played. I was scanning the tables, looking for famous faces. They were televising (on ESPN360.com) the final table of the $5000 pot-limit Omaha tournament with Daniel Negranu, John Juanda, David Benyamine, and Johnny Chan at the table, but the crowd watching as large and the table was a long way away and I could not see anything.

I kept scanning the tables. The $2000 6-handed no-limit hold'em event was being played. As I watched the tables, I was not really looking where I walking. Suddenly, I bumped into someone and said, "Oh, sorry." He replied with a slight Asian accent, "No problem, baby." It was Scotty Nguyen, one of the best and most famous poker players in the world. I was so stunned I did not say anything to him. He made his way back to the table he was playing at. I felt like an idiot.

After watching the action for a little while, I decided to register for the $1500 NL hold-em event beginning Tuesday at noon. I had a cashier's check from Wachovia for $5000, enough to cover entries into 2 $1500 events and a $2000 event I was eyeing. The registration room told me I had to take cashier's checks to the main casino room though. It was a long walk and I was a little frustrated. Then, I got to the casino cashier and they told me it would take 24-hours for a cashier's check to clear! That would put my entry into the tuesday event in serious jeopardy. I was furious now. It took at least an hour of walking back and forth and talking to managers at the Rio to work it all out. It ended up being fine, but left a bad taste in my mouth.

Anyway, that is where things stand at the moment. I am about to play in the $1500 event. Wish me luck!!